METAtropolis:: Review

I am usually not a fan of anthologies, so I don’t know why I keep buying them and reading them. To be honest, when I bought this book I didn’t know that it was an anthology (it’s what I get for ordering books online I guess), but I was actually surprised by how much I liked the stories. I think that a huge part of that is because the anthology wasn’t just a bunch of random post-apocalyptic and dystopian stories, but rather a collection of stories that focus on what major cities would all be like in the future. In theory, every single story in this anthology could be taking place around the same time since it focused on specific cities, but not in a way that lead the reader to think the rest of the world had been obliterated. In the introduction, the editor talks about how he wanted it to feel like the old Greek City-States, each one governed and living very differently at the same time. It worked, and it made the anthology one that I actually enjoyed.

         This anthology is the working of five authors: Elizabeth Bear, Tobias Buckell, Jay Lake, Karl Schroeder and the editor John Scalzi. I think this is also why this anthology worked, to often anthologies try to get to many authors, which shortens the stories and leaves the reader feeling incomplete. Now that I have said I enjoyed the anthology overall, skip the first one. It was long, slow moving and very boring. In the Forest of the Night written by Jay Lake has the name of the main character is Tyger Tyger… yeah, does that tell you anything about how lame this story is going to be? Other than that, its all great, well good.

         Stocasti-City by Tobias Buckell takes place in a future Detroit bent on abandoning cars in favor of using bikes. The Red in the Sky is Our Blood by Elizabeth Bear deals with the future of the Russian Mob and a woman trying to protect her step-daughter. Utere Nihil non Extra Quiritationem Suis by John Scalzi might have been my favorite. Set in a future city with a zero footprint, this story was funny to the point of laughing out loud. Its good to know that in the future, spilling pig feces on your enemies is considered  heroic. To Hi from Far Celinea by Karl Schroeder was the final story. If you want good characters, this isn’t the story for you as I found them lacking depth, but the ideas and the plot were great, and this was the only story to deal with the cyber world.